Has This Ever Happened To You?

04 Jan Has This Ever Happened To You?

Read what Amber Nelon Thompson posted on her facebook page about being confronted with the decision to show mercy and grace even when it wasn’t easy to do.

Today was a busy day. I prepared for our 10 day run on the road and then had to prepare for a separate trip at the end of this one. I came home and cleaned the house of all the Christmas decor and then re-organized everything. I unpacked to only re-pack. I did laundry. I ran my errands and I was starving. I drove up the street to Pizza Hut. They have a drive thru and I wanted my little personal pan pepperoni. The lady at the window was so rude to me I could hardly believe it. It was as if she was annoyed by my presence. It was all I could do not to want to be rude back to her. When it came time to pay, I saw at the bottom of the receipt the words “Tip:” and laughed. The flesh side of me said “absolutely not” but then all of a sudden I felt the Holy Spirit say “yes you will and tip more than you usually would”. So I obeyed. I tipped her $20. At a drive thru. When I came back a few min later to pick up my order, she suddenly was a lot kinder. She started tearing up and thanked me for being kind to her. She told me that earlier she had found out some bad news and she wasn’t sure how to even handle it or get through the day. I told her that God loved her and wanted her to know and that I would be praying for her. I sat there thinking about how glad I am that I am not the judge of what people deserve and don’t deserve. I’m thankful that it’s God’s job and not mine. In my eyes she didn’t deserve a tip. In my eyes she didn’t deserve kindness back, but in God’s eyes she deserved a little love and kindness from a total stranger so she could see how much He cared about her. Even though she wasn’t showing that to others. How many times have I needed mercy & grace from others? How many times have I needed mercy & grace from God when I don’t deserve it? More times than I can count. This world is looking for that kind of love. In fact, they’re craving it. So show some mercy and grace to people. People you know and people you don’t. Whether they deserve it or not. When you don’t want to is when you should the most. Someone showed mercy & grace to us and He is the one who commands us to show it to others! So obey the Spirit!

#mercyandgrace        #truth